TRINITY UNIVERSITY
SPRING 2010 SYLLABUS GNED 1300-12
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR: EMBRACING SAN ANTONIO: CULTURA Y COMUNIDAD
Instructor: David Spener
Peer Tutor: Shelley Ramsey
Meets TR 11:20 AM-12:35 PM in Storch 104
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This bilingual seminar will explore the history, culture, and present-day reality of San Antonio’s
Latino majority population. Special attention will be paid to expressions of Mexican and
Mexican American culture in the city and historical and contemporary struggles to improve the
quality of life of the city’s residents. The class will make visits to culturally-significant
landmarks in the city and meet with community leaders and activists. Student assignments will
include participating in service projects with non-profit organizations. This seminar serves as a
gateway for the University’s Mexico, the Americas, and Spain (MAS) and Languages across the
Curriculum (LAC) programs. The temas we will touch upon in the seminar will include historia,
cultura, comunicación, activismo, desarrollo económico, educación, and cocina/comida.
As indicated by its title, this course is not just any class, it is a seminar. It is likely that many, if
not most, of you have never participated in an academic seminar before. Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary gives the following definitions for the term:
sem.i.nar n [G, fr. L seminarium nursery] (1889) 1: a group of advanced students
studying under a professor with each doing original research and all exchanging results
through reports and discussions 2 a (1): a course of study pursued by a seminar (2): an
advanced or graduate course often featuring informality and discussion b: a scheduled
meeting of a seminar or a room for such meetings 3: a meeting for giving and discussing
information.
As suggested by this definition, a seminar is student-centered, i.e. it revolves around the active
contributions made by the students participating in it. Ideally, the role of the professor is not to
impart a body of knowledge to students in a formal setting, but rather to serve them informally as
a consultant and facilitator as they investigate, analyze, and discuss the themes of the course.
In keeping with this conception of what a seminar is meant to be, the readings and assignments
planned for the semester are mainly intended to be points of departure for discussion and further
exploration of issues of interest to students. These issues may deal not only with lo latino de San
Antonio, but may also relate to the learning process and the conduct of the seminar itself.
USE OF SPANISH AND ENGLISH IN THE COURSE
This course is part of the Spanish across the Curriculum component of Trinity University’s
International Studies Program. It will be conducted bilingually in Spanish and English, i.e., in
both languages of the Latino community in San Antonio. Concretely, that means that we will
read texts in both languages, view/listen to audiovisual materials in both languages, have guest
speakers who make presentations in Spanish as well as English, and engage in writing
assignments in both languages. Competence in speaking, reading, writing, and listening in both
Spanish and English is thus a requirement for participation in the course.
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A note on evaluation of students’ use of Spanish in course assignments: The minimum level
of Spanish competence required for successful participation in the seminar is completion of
Spanish 2302, “Intermediate Spanish II,” or its equivalent. Spanish will be used as one of the
languages of instruction in the course, but this is NOT a Spanish course. Therefore, students’ use
of Spanish in class, both orally and in writing, will be evaluated at the level of communicative
competence (i.e., getting their message across), rather than in terms of style or grammatical
correctness. Nevertheless, for written assignments, students should make use of their word
processor’s Spanish grammar/spelling correction tool to avoid egregious errors that impede
readers’ comprehension of their arguments.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Reading
There are no books for you to buy for the course. Rather, you will be assigned a variety of
published materials to read, evenly divided between English and Spanish-language publications.
The instructor and peer tutor will make these available to you in a variety of ways throughout the
semester. You should always complete readings in time to discuss them in class on the day for
which they are assigned. The instructor will often post study/discussion questions on TLEARN
to help you prepare for class. ALWAYS bring copies of assigned readings with you on the day
they are to be discussed in class!
Attendance and participation
Class attendance is mandatory and your participation in discussions in the seminar needs to be
active. Each class period you will be asked to discuss and debate issues that are raised in
assigned materials. Come to every class prepared to both ask and answer questions about the
assignments. In addition, there will be a number of local class field trips this semester that will
take place outside regular class hours. These field trips are required; students that have unresolvable scheduling conflicts will be excused from participating and given an alternate activity
to complete. Attendance and participation will account for 10 percent of your final grade in the
course.
On-line discussion forums
To supplement our discussions in class, each week you will need to make two postings, one in
English and one in Spanish, to an on-line discussion forum on TLEARN. Each posting should
consist at a minimum of 150-200 words of critical, original comments about an assigned reading,
a question posed by the instructor, or your response to postings or comments made in class by
other students. You can also raise issues of your own as they pertain to the topic(s) of the forum.
Your postings will be graded by the instructor for their relevance, originality, clarity, and
demonstrated engagement with issues we raise in the seminar. Postings to on-line discussion
forums will account for 15 percent of your final grade in the course.
Audiovisual presentation
As a member of team of two to three classmates, you will conduct research on a topic relevant to
one or more of the themes of the seminar. You will present the findings of your research in a 2025 minute audiovisual presentation to the class. This presentation must be documented
electronically so that it can be posted on the seminar’s T-Learn site. More detailed instructions
for this assignment will be provided by the instructor. The audiovisual presentation will account
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for 15 percent of your final grade in the course. Presentations will be made in class on April 27
and April 29.
Short papers
Your written assignments for the course will include two short papers/essays on a seminar-related
topic. Papers should be 1,200-1,500 words long and incorporate findings you obtain from
bibliographic research. The sources you rely upon will need to be properly referenced using
American Sociological Association citation style. The first paper will be due on Monday,
February 22 at 9:00 AM. The second paper will be due on Tuesday, April 20 at 12:00 noon.
These papers may be written in English, but you will need to consult Spanish-language sources as
part of your research. More detailed instructions for these assignments will be provided by the
instructor. Each paper will account for 15 percent of your final grade in the course.
Semester service-learning project
Your biggest assignment for the seminar will be your semester service-learning project. For this
project you will spend a minimum of 30 hours volunteering with a non-governmental
organization (NGO) that serves the Latino community in San Antonio. At the end of the semester
you will turn in a brief written report (approximately 1,500 words) and make a short presentation
to the class, each of which summarizes your activities and accomplishments working for the
organization. More detailed instructions for these assignments will be provided by the instructor.
The semester service-learning project will account for 30 percent of your final course grade.
GRADING
Grades in the course will be given on a letter basis. The weighting of participation, the short
essays, list-serve postings, service learning, and the final paper will be as follows:
Attendance & participation
Presentation
Short papers
Forum postings
Semester project
TOTAL
10%
15%
30%
15%
30%
100%
There will be no grading "curve" in this course—each student will receive the grade s/he earns
without regard to the class average. All assignment due dates are firm, and exceptions will be
made only under extraordinary circumstances. Unless prior consent has been obtained from the
instructor, grades on assignments turned in late will automatically be lowered one full letter. In
addition, the grade given for written work in English will be lowered for spelling and punctuation
errors, poor grammar, improper style, et cetera. Extra credit assignments may be offered from
time-to-time throughout the semester and will be announced by the instructor.
All assignments in this course are “pledged” assignments, as per the Trinity University Academic
Honor Code (see http://www.trinity.edu/departments/academic_affairs/honor_code/).
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VIAJE DE ESTUDIOS A MONTERREY, NUEVO LEÓN: UNIQUE EXTRA CREDIT
OPPORTUNITY
A significant theme that we will be exploring this semester is San Antonio’s links to communities
in Mexico and the survival and reconstitution of Mexican cultural practices and traditions here.
One of the most important Mexican communities to which San Antonio is connected is
Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico’s third largest metropolis, located just 300 miles away. Every
semester, Trinity’s Mexico, the Americas, and Spain (MAS) program takes a busload of students
to Monterrey as part of an exchange program with universities there. The program involves
attending academic meetings and social activities with Mexican students and faculty, as well as
visiting significant historical and cultural sites, including places that illustrate Monterrey’s links
to San Antonio. This trip is optional for students in our seminar, but you are strongly encouraged
to attend and can earn extra course credit for doing so. The bus will leave Trinity on the
afternoon of Wednesday, February 24 and return on the afternoon of Sunday, February 28.
The approximate cost to students will be U.S. $200. Financial assistance may be available for
those who require it.
ÁLVAREZ SEMINAR AND OTHER CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EVENTS THIS
SEMESTER
We are very fortunate that this semester the MAS Program is initiating what will be an annual
seminar on Latino and Latin American issues. The theme of the Álvarez Seminar this semester
is nuevas identidades en las Américas. The seminar will consist of several special events held on
the Trinity campus (see attached flyer). Students in the Embracing San Antonio seminar will be
able to earn extra course credit for attending any Álvarez seminar event and writing a 1-2 page
synopsis/reaction paper that relates material presented at the event to topics covered in our class.
In addition, there will be many other events taking place in the San Antonio community this
semester that you may similarly attend for extra course credit. Information about these events
will be provided by the instructor as it becomes available.
CONTACT INFORMATION AND OFFICE HOURS FOR INSTRUCTOR
AND PEER TUTOR
Instructor: Dr. David Spener, Associate Professor of Sociology & Anthropology
Office: 016 Storch Phone: 210 999 8562 Email: dspener@trinity.edu
Office Hours: TR 10-11 AM, W 1-3 PM; Please make an appointment.
Peer Tutor: Ms. Shelley Ramsey, Junior, Sociology major, Urban Studies minor
Campus Address: Box 1745 Phone: 901 337-9683 Email: sramsey@trinity.edu
Tutoring Hours: To be announced
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